It had to happen eventually. This year has seen an explosion of independent projects funded by crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter, and it was only a matter of time before someone tried to take advantage of such goodwill for a scam. Such is the apparent case of "Mythic: The Story of Gods and Men," a project that raised eyebrows and has subsequently been canceled.

The project page seems a bit slipshod at a glance, and for good reason. Comments on the Something Awful and Rock Paper Shotgun forums noted various reasons for suspicion. The character art, backgrounds, reward pictures, and office photos had been lifted from various sites. Most strikingly, the reward tiers were lifted directly from the Kickstarter page for The Banner Saga. The page bragged that its staff was composed of former Activision Blizzard vets, and that animation would be done by "friends at Disney/Pixar." We're sure they've got a beach in Kansas to sell you too.

The developer, "Little Monster Productions," briefly insisted that the project was legit in the comments before giving up the ghost. It had managed to snag almost $5,000 in pledges before it was exposed. Kickstarter only charges backers once a project is completely funded and finished, though, so those who chipped in won't be ripped off.

Fortunately, this wasn't a particularly convincing scam, and the collective brain of the Internet caught it quickly. Although crowd-sourcing has seen tremendous success, a healthy dose of skepticism is always a good idea. Scammers have been using donations as a cover for a long time, and the next one might be more convincing.

Even without scams, it's only a matter of time before a high-profile project takes everybody's money and ends up unable to deliver the final product. And when it happens, the backlash is gonna be huge.

Even without scams, it's only a matter of time before a high-profile project takes everybody's money and ends up unable to deliver the final product. And when it happens, the backlash is gonna be huge.

That is why people need to be smart about who they back, and how comfortable they are with the level of risk. There has been several really good articles about this.

Most video game projects fail because either A) They are asking for too much $$$$ and don't really have the background to pull something off B)No real details/plan where money goes etc C)Reward tiers are wonky.

SR, WL2, DFA all did gang busters because they came from some of the greatest names in gaming. Unless your last name is Avelleone or Fargo or Weismann, you are not going to ask for 1,000,000 and get it.

Leisure Suit Larry got funded, but because the extra funding added a lot more content, the title's release date has been moved from Oct 12 to early next year.

For those who are getting a Pebble : I just read one detail about the watch not on the Kickstarter website that I thought was important -- The Pebble will only show SMS message data from Android phones (iOS doesn't make this data available). This was important to me since it was the main reason I got the watch (I get hospital pages through my phone), but fortunately I just got a new Android phone, so I'm still okay.

Just wanted to let everyone know that our current plan is to limit the total number of Kickstarter rewards to around 85,000 Pebbles. As soon as the total exceeds that, all rewards will change to being 'sold out'. Right now you have claimed 75,000 watches, that leaves only 10,000 more before Pebble is sold out!
We've thought a lot about this decision, and we feel it's time. You, our backers, were the first group of people to believe in Pebble, and we want to return our focus to creating the most awesome watch possible for you.

Pebble will be available eventually for $150 USD from www.getpebble.com, but the expected delivery date will be well after the ship date of all Kickstarter backers.

Pebble Watch seems like it should be in Tech Talk, unless there's some new video games running on it that i'm not aware of

Okay, give me a second..... you could arrange to get notifications on a Pebble watch that your opponent in Words With Friends or Draw Something! sent you a new challenge. That sorta makes it game related, right?